Early Years Goals

Early Years Goals and Montessori Practices

We believe at our Montessori school we go the extra mile working with you and your child to achieve more than the standard early learning goals.

This developmental progress is documented in the child’s Record of Achievement. It is important to note that children’s progress is recorded from the moment the child enters a setting, be it at the age of six, twelve or twenty-four months. All recorded routines, activities and games contribute towards the child’s holistic development.

The following tables should serve as a guide and an overview of activities which might help children develop and contribute towards the achievement of the early learning goals at the end of the reception year in Montessori settings.

There are five main sections which need to be taken under consideration, Personal, Social and Emotional Development, Communication, Language and Literacy, Problem Solving, Reasoning and Numeracy, Knowledge and understanding of the world, Physical development and Creative Development

Personal, Social and Emotional Development

Early learning goals as identified in statutory guidance

Examples of Montessori practice

Children should:

Children:

Continue to be interested, excited and

motivated to learn.

Are helped to settle into the routines.

Undertake accessible activities.

Are encouraged to make choices.

Are given an explanation of ‘how the room or classroom works’.

Are confident to try new activities, initiate ideas and speak in a familiar group.

Select activities spontaneously.

Are curious about new activities being undertaken by older peers and being introduced by teachers and are ready to try them.

Contribute to discussions with teachers and other children around the nature table or in the book corner when sharing activities with the group.

Communication, Language and Literacy

Early learning goals as identified in statutory guidance

Examples of Montessori practice

Children should:

Children:

Interact with others, negotiating plans and activities and taking turns in conversation.

Are encouraged to express their ideas and contribute to conversations.

Participate in sharing of ideas and experiences in the book corner and art area.

Can choose to play group games such as animal lotto.

Can participate in block play, role-play and outdoor play.

Enjoy listening to and using spoken and written language, and readily turn to it in their play and learning.

Share books either on one-to-one basis or in a group.

Listen to guidance on how to use materials, participate in cooking and other activities.

Have extensive one-to-one conversations with each other and adults.

Sustain attentive listening, responding to what they have heard with relevant comments, questions or actions.

Participate in story time, during group activities, engage in attentive listening.

Listen to instructions given by adults.

Participate in the ‘Silence game’.

Participate in ‘I Spy’ and ‘Odd One Out’.

Respond to science experiments and observations of the environment.

Listen with enjoyment and respond to stories, songs and other music, rhymes and poems and make up their own stories, songs, rhymes and poems.

Participate and enjoy listening to stories. Freedom of choice encourages enjoyment and creative use of language during book reading, role-play and music time.

Problem Solving, Reasoning and Numeracy

Early learning goals as identified in statutory guidance

Examples of Montessori practice

Children should:

Children:

Say and use number names in order in a familiar context.

Join in rhymes, use counting books and count, for example, the number of children present, days of the week, spoons of ingredients when cooking.

Count reliably up to ten everyday objects.

Count number rods, pegs, spindles, counters and other objects in the environment.

Recognise numerals 1 to 9.

Use sandpaper numerals and a spindle box, number cards, the birthday display and calendar.

Find one more or one less than a number from one to ten.

Use a number line, short bead stairs and the addition and subtraction strip board to count and explore numbers.

Use language such as ‘greater’, ‘smaller’, ‘heavier’, or ‘lighter’ to compare quantities.

Use all sensorial activities, especially the geometric solid, the geometric cabinet and the binomial and trinomial cubes.

Knowledge and Understanding of the World

Early learning goals as identified in statutory guidance

Examples of Montessori practice

Children should:

Children:

Investigate objects and materials by using all of their senses as appropriate.